Jun 30, 2023     Empennage fairing and cowl touch up - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

Sanded down the areas where I applied epoxy and micro to the lower cowl and empennage fairing. Both are going to need a little bit more touch up before paint.

  Jun 19, 2023     Empennage fairing and cowl touch ups - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

Mixed up some epoxy and micro balloons to fill in some low spots on the lower cowl near the spinner and on the empennage fairing.

  May 11, 2023     HS and Elevators painted - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Picked up the HS and elevators from the painter. Reinstalled and checked travel one more time. It was all good. Made a mount out of 2X6 to keep safe on the wall and for motivation. Installed a few cotter pins in throttle and mixture linkages.

  Mar 29, 2023     Finished SB-00036 - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Riveted the painted elevator brackets to the nested doubler, rear spar and forward repair doubler. Also riveted the HS skin, where I removed rivets, to the HS rear spar and nested doubler. This completes SB-00036. YAY!! Installed the HS and elevators on the fuse to check for interference with the elevators and HS upper skin where my painter said it may rub. Removed a small portion of the top aft edge of the HS skin. Will revisit this later at final assembly and modify the up stop if necessary. Used a couple new tools to help with installation and removal of the elevator to simulate the bolts and they worked great.

  Mar 28, 2023     And more SB-00036 - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Riveted the right side brackets to the rear HS spar and also riveted the HS skin to the nested doubler and rear spar where I removed rivets to complete the SB. Deburred and primed the repair doubler, nested doubler and new brackets for the left elevator outboard hinge. Dimpled the nested doubler with the squeezer which worked much better than my modified #40 vice grips. Installed/clecoed in place the repair doubler and nested doubler with the bent hanger tool. I used it to slide the repair doubler between the skin and rear spar and pulled it in behind the rear HS spar. That little tool worked great too to blindly install the repair doubler. Painted the brackets to install tomorrow and finish this SB.

  Mar 27, 2023     More SB-00036 - (4 hours)       Category: Empennage

Cut a coat hanger to make an attachment to the forward doubler to be able to insert the doubler into the HS and clecoed it to the HS rear spar. Found some scrap .040 and used it to simulate the nested spar double and be able to match drill the new bracket to the old. Also had to sand down the edges of the new bracket to be able to “nest” into the nested spar doubler. Primed and painted the right brackets. While waiting for the paint to dry I drilled out the left brackets and associated rivets on the skin in the rear spar. I then match drilled the right nested spar doubler, rear doubler and elevator brackets to the rear spar.

  Mar 23, 2023     SB-00036 HS doublers - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Started the SB-00036 for possible cracks in the rear spar of the HS at the outer elevator bracket rivets. Drilled out the right elevator brackets and several rivets along the upper and lower trailing edge of the HS. Match drilled, deburred, dimpled and primed the appropriate parts of the SB-00036 kit. Going to try and install the forward doubler even tho I don't have any cracks if I can figure out a way to get it inside the HS without drilling out any more rivets. The new brackets seem to be an exact copy of the old brackets, but by adding the rear .040 doubler the hole for the rod end bearing on the elevator will not match up. It's exactly .040 off. Hmmmmmm. Placed a call to Vans and they are going to research it.

  Mar 21, 2023     SB-00036 HS elevator brackets - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

Spent some time studying the SB kit and whether I want to do the full SB or just the part for rear spar with no cracks. Think I'll start and see how hard it's gonna be to install the forward doubler.

  Feb 20, 2023     HS tips - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

Sanded HS tips and filled some pinholes I found.

  Jan 21, 2023     HS tips edge glass epoxy - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

Applied a strip of glass and epoxy to the HS tip/HS interface to both end of the top surface.

  Oct 12, 2022     Rudder bottom - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Trimmed and sanded bottom rubber tip for fit. Got it as best I could which should be fine. I'm going to use #6 screws and nutplates instead of rivets for securing the rudder bottom so I can access the taillight if necessary. Marked, match drilled, deburred and dimpled for nutplates.

  Oct 11, 2022     Rudder tips - (3 hours)       Category: Empennage

Made a new long sanding block to get the edges of both tips even. Trimmed a little more off both tips and fit seems good. Previous builder drilled and dimpled the top of the rudder for CS4-4 pull rivets. I flattened the dimples with my squeezer and laid out a row of holes for CS3-3 rivets, since I'm going to use these CS rivets and some west systems flexible epoxy. I plan to lay down some epoxy filler between the tip and rudder for a smooth transition. Had to cut a couple slots in the leading edge of the top tip so it would fit in place. I'll use some epoxy and glass this in later. Also laid out a row of holes for #6 screws and nutplates on the lower rudder fiberglass tip to be able to remove it if needed.

  Oct 07, 2022     Bottom rudder fairing - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

Worked on the bottom rudder fairing fit. I feel it's pretty close, but needs a lot more tweaking.

  Jun 25, 2018     Elevator control horn - (1 hour)       Category: Empennage

Had a friend repair/weld hole in elevator control horn that I messed up. After drilling thru from opposing horn hole edge distance was insufficient.